The proportion of households in the country with computers during 2014 was around 14 per cent and only 6 per cent rural and 29 per cent urban households possessed computers, Chaudhary said citing a report of the National Sample Survey Office.
"This highlights that more than 15 crore rural households (94 per cent of 16.85 crore households) do not have computers and a significant number of these households are likely to be digitally illiterate," Chaudhary added.
The report indicates that in 14-29 years age group in rural India, only 18 per cent were able to operate a computer.
"Similarly, in the age group of 30-45 years, the percentage drops further to 4 per cent. In the age group of 46-60 years, the percentage is just more than 1 per cent," Chaudhary said.
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He said the government is taking various measures to promote digitisation and cashless payments in the country, including delivery of government services through Common Services Centres (CSCs) where IT and telecom usage is low, laying of optical fibre network across 2.5 lakh gram panchayats and the like.
To ensure equitable geographical reach, each of the approximately 2,50,000 gram panchayats will be expected to register an average of 200-300 candidates, he said.
"Digitally literate persons would be able to operate computers or digital access devices like tablets, smartphones, etc, send and receive e-mails, browse the Internet, access government services, search for information and undertake cashless transactions, and hence use IT to actively participate in the process of nation building," Chaudhary said.
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